Cultural Competency in Social Work Scholarship and Research on Latinos in the United States

Background and Purpose: Over the past several decades, the concept of cultural competency has been primarily emphasized among direct practice social work professionals and social work organizations, while cultural competence in social work research has been a somewhat recent development and has been relatively unexplored. The purpose of this study was to determine whether and to what degree social work researchers and scholars were applying culturally competent research practices in their work with Latino populations in the United States. Guided by Melei’s eight criteria for culturally competent scholarship, social work journal articles published from 1990 through 2012 that examine Latino populations were evaluated.

Methods: A content analysis approach was utilized to analyze peer-reviewed social work journal articles. The content analysis used in this study applied an assessment framework based on eight cultural competency criteria proposed by Meleis (1996), which included: (1) contextuality, (2) relevance, (3) communication styles, (4) awareness of identity and power differentials, (5) disclosure, (6) reciprocation, (7) empowerment, and (8) time. The assessment framework was used to examine how frequently the eight cultural competency criteria were applied in social work journal articles that focused on the Latino population.

Results:  From 1990 to 2012, a total of 124 articles that examined Latino populations in the U.S. were found within the 13 social work–related journals included in the study. The 124 articles represent 1.4% of the total number of articles published in the social work journals selected for this study. The criteria reciprocation and relevance were each found in 124 (100%) of the articles, and contextuality was found in 123 (99.2%) articles. Communication and disclosure were found in 67 (54.0%) and 64 (51.6%) articles, respectively. Identity and power was found in 35 (28.2%) articles. Empowerment was found in 32 (25.8%), and time was found in 23 (18.5%) articles. Three of the eight criteria were applied in more than 99% of the articles, two criteria were applied in approximately 50% of the articles, and the remaining three criteria were each applied in less than 30% percent of articles.

Conclusions and Implications:  The findings from this study provide social work researchers and scholars who perform research with Latino populations in the U.S. with important insight as to specific areas wherein there are opportunities to increase the amount of cultural competency criteria being applied in their research and scholarship efforts. The findings also revealed a general deficiency of journal articles focusing on the Latino population. It is pertinent for research to parallel and take into consideration the rising population and the numerous challenges that Latinos may face.